Joseph Culliford

Joseph Culliford was an English pirate who operated off the Ivory Coast in West Africa.

Biography
Joseph Culliford was born in Great Britain's colony of Nassau in the Bahamas, and became a pirate in the Caribbean. In 1696 his first prize was "HMS Dartmoor" off the coast of Jamaica, followed by three sloops. He seized a load of 50 barrels of rum and 100 barrels of gunpowder in a raid on the Dutch treasure fleet leaving Dutch Guyana in 1698, and proceeded to capture French frigate "Saint-Croix" off of French Guiana.

Eventually, he spread his operations to West Africa, where he plundered Portuguese, British, French, and Spanish shipping from their Ivory Coast trading and slaving stations. He captured Portuguese man-of-war "Conquistador" off the waters of Togo in 1699, and his biggest prize, the Portuguese men-of-war "Nosso Senhor de Orientacao" and "Sao Jorge" were captured off of Ghana. But in 1700, the Portuguese captain Felipe de Sequeira set out to kill him with 5 ships, facing a fleet of 3 pirate ships.

Off the coast of Gabon, Sequeira's ships caught up to Culliford. The battle seemed to be a sure Portuguese win, but the Portuguese ran out of time before they could destroy Culliford's fleet. Only one pirate ship was lost; 3 Portuguese vessels were sunk, and the other two escaped.